Birds of North-west Fohkien. 37 



among the thin hair-lines encircling the large end of the 

 e^^. It measures 0*77 X 0-61 inch. 



The nest is a strong compact cup, with well-rounded edges 

 made of grass-stems and blades and a few fine grass-roots, 

 inside of which there is an inner cup composed of fine strips 

 of grass. The lining is of fine brown fibre. The inner 

 diameter is 2* 1 x 2"4 inches, the outer diameter 4*5 X 5 inches 

 at the rim ; the inner depth is I "5 inch, and the outer depth 

 2-5 inch. It was placed on a tea-plant about 2 feet from 

 the ground. 



Another nest containing young, taken at Foochow in 

 July, is also a strong and compact cup^ but with thinner 

 walls than the former. It is made of coarse grass -blades, 

 grass-stems, very fine weed-stems, and twigs, with a tendril 

 or two, and a few bits of bracken on the outside. It is 

 lined with fine grass-roots, some black hair, and a very little 

 fibre. The inner diameter is 2^ x 2| inches, the outer 

 diameter 3^ x 4| inches ; the inner depth is 2 inches, and 

 the outer depth 2| inches, 



Mr. Rickett has a nest with five eggs taken near Kuatun 

 in 1897, and another nest with three eggs, taken by the 

 natives during the same year after our collectors had left, 

 was sold to me on our arrival at Kuatun. These eg^s bear 

 a general resemblance to the one described above, but they 

 have each a big light yellow-brown cloud or smudge, which 

 in one egg covers the apical half, this egg being encircled 

 round the middle on the edge of the smudge by a vandyke- 

 brown scrawl. In the other eggs this smudge is smaller and 

 irregular, and it is chiefly, though not altogether, on the 

 apical half of the egg. One of these has two big scrawls of 

 very dark vandyke-brown, and the third hair-lines and a few 

 short and wider scrawls. The underlying hair-lines and 

 streaks are of the same lilac-grey. These three eggs measure 

 0-79 X 0-63, 0-78 x 0-64, and 0-78 > 0-o3 inch. 



122. Emberiza aureola Pall. 



Two were shot near Kuatun in April 1897, and others at 

 Upper Kuatun on the 30th April, 1898. Two of the latter 

 are males in almost pure breeding-plumage. 



